BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese history teacher beat an 11-year-old pupil senseless and threw her body from a fourth-floor classroom window, k!lling her in a so-far unexplained frenzy, a local newspaper said on Monday.

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Li Hengyi, 28, attacked Zhang Yaoyi during class on Wednesday at a middle school in Yongzhou city in the central province of Hunan, the Beijing News said.

"He knocked her head against the desks back and forth and stomped on her after she fell," the newspaper said. "He then produced a steel bar to beat her."

Li later picked up the motionless Zhang, said he was going to take her to the school clinic, but opened the window and threw her out instead, the newspaper added, quoting an unnamed witness.

Li, whose motive was unknown, had been detained, the newspaper said.

There have been a series of attacks on schools and schoolchildren around China in recent years, some by people who have lost their jobs or felt left out of the country's economic boom.

In May, a man set fire to a kindergarten classroom, k!lling three children and injuring 14 people.